Backed by a paper-making pioneer with a centuries-long legacy, Botani is reimagining how wraps and rolling papers can be a core component of modern cannabis brands
For years, pre-rolls and cones have been some of the fastest-growing categories in cannabis. But while most companies put a lot of care and emphasis on the product inside the pre-roll, many overlook the paper that holds everything together.
Alex Boone, the managing director of Botani, thinks about paper differently. Botani is the cannabis-focused brand of paper pioneer SWM International, a company with a legacy dating back nearly 500 years to the opening of its first paper mill in France in 1545.
“The bottom line is that we’re paper makers,” Boone says. “We always have been paper makers. We will continue to be paper makers.”
As cannabis brands look for ways to differentiate their products, Botani has emerged as an innovator in rolling paper, introducing new products built on quality, consistency and customization.
Botani offers a wide range of options for cannabis brands, including colorful rolling papers and papers made from hemp and tea leaves.
Committing to Cannabis
SWM International has long catered to the tobacco industry, but Boone saw an opportunity after Colorado and Washington legalized adult-use marijuana in 2012. With more than two decades of experience at SWM, he began exploring papers specifically for the emerging cannabis market.
Initially, the idea was rejected. Then came the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp in the United States.
“That caused us to really put our feet forward into the cannabis industry,” says Boone. “We could think more freely on an industry that we’ve been part of for decades — centuries, as a matter of fact.”
That led the company to retool its mill in Ancram, New York, where it uses cannabis-derived biomass for its hemp filler, and works with leaf and flower material to produce its botanical products. The Botani brand was launched shortly afterwards, focused first on delivering quality and consistency to cannabis companies, then getting more creative and leaning into options for customization and brand-building.
Adding Value to Brands
SWM still manufactures traditional papers, but Botani’s hemp-based papers and tea leaf wrappers help cannabis companies elevate the consumer experience and set themselves apart from the competition. Botani often acts as a partner in helping cannabis brands stand out in a crowded field, offering customized materials, branded watermarking, and even colored rolling papers, including an eye-catching pastel line.
“If brands can create a story and I can help them through some visual or sensory identification, then that’s what we’re about,” Boone says. “How can I be different than the other brand down the street? It’s no longer about different products and packaging.”
Hemp products, such as the company’s botanical blunt wraps, are a bio-diverse option to traditional wood-based papers and help create a rich flavor that has been a hit with consumers.
“If you’ve got a brand guy who really wants to bring out a unique flavor or a unique terpene, this has been the catalyst to do so because of the marriage of terpenes with what we do with our process of botanicals,” Boone says. “Our customers have found that by adding natural terpenes, this really brings a great sense versus anything else that’s been on the market.”
The hemp paper is created from post-extracted biomass that hemp farms previously discarded.
Botani also produces botanical wrappers from tea leaves, since there are challenges associated with importing hemp-based papers into Canada, Indonesia and select U.S. states. The tea-based paper offers many of the same benefits as hemp, including sustainability and a unique, botanical flavor. Botani also has the ability to imprint a company’s logo on the paper itself, using a food-grade product that changes the opaqueness of the paper, leaving behind a visible brand image without the use of ink or coloring.
A History in Hemp
SWM’s roots go back to 1545, when Schweitzer-Mauduit International began operating its first paper mill in the south of France, using hemp fibers to make paper from the very beginning. The company went on to start one of the world’s first rolling paper brands in 1872, giving it more than 150 years as a pioneer in the category. Today, Botani carries on that legacy with two mills — one in Saint-Girons, France, and one in Ancram, New York, home to the state’s longest operating paper mill.
This long legacy translates into innovation. With a team of scientists researching every angle of the product and a world-class research-and-development program to stay ahead of industry-leading trends, Botani can scale quickly to meet the needs of a growing brand — and meet the explosive growth of an industry nearing federal legalization.
“We really want people to understand that Botani is not just a fly-by-night thing, but built on a legacy, a long history of paper making, and that we are a leader in premium paper for cannabis,” Boone says.